Posts tagged “#Weneeddiversebooks”

I wrote one character with the intent of making a love triangle for my
characters Rei and Bronx. It really wasn’t much of one since Rei
wasn’t interested in Maitrun in the slightest. I thought I could try
my hand at it but nope. Big fat no. Honestly, I will be putting
those two through enought so adding a third person to the relationship
felt like overkill.

But then what would I do with Maitrun? I couldn’t get rid of him
completely because he actually plays a role in some of the story
linens, but I couldn’t figure out what more to do with him after the
first book. Maitrun is not important enough to be a main character,
but he has a role to play. I guess, in a way, he was just not a
character that I was that invested in.

What was he like? Well, I tried to make him like Rayne Summers from
the online comic ‘Least I Could Do.’ I like that kind of crass humor
and even though he is a womanizer there is something about him that I
find loveable. Unfortunately only Rayne can be Rayne. I can’t
recreate that in a way that would work in my story…in fact I can’t
recreate Rayne at all. It turned out pretty bad. Then I thought back
to a similar character – Nichols from ‘Orange is the New Black.’

She has a similar sense of humor and sometimes can be a little
offputting but she really cares about those close to her and always
makes the effort to show it. Another similar character is Captain
Jack Harkness from Doctor Who/Torchwood. See the pattern? Granted
Nicky is a lesbian and Harkness is an omnisexual (he’ll have sex with
anything) I loved how they stuck out in this world of straight heroes
and heroines. Your sexual orientation is not a prerequisite for
heroics and overall badassery. I know that they are both major flirts
but that’s because they just love to love.

Then I also remembered this movement that has been gaining momentum
over the last several months: #weneeddiversebooks. I have always
agreed with this statement long before the movement emerged. In Book of Tas’und’eash I made one of my heroes a Nigerian named Latif
because I didn’t want my heroes to be so white washed. It’s not like
I meant for that to happen. In fact, I don’t think most authors do
that. But once I became aware, I decided to put changes where I
could.

So I came to the decision that Maitrun would now be a lesbian.
However, what would I call her? I had been wanting to come up with a
cool badass chick called Bernadette only because I love nickname
Bernie for a girl. Et voila! Bernie!

Suddenly this character had new life for me and I could come up with
more things for her. I am very excited. On the whole, integrating
Bernie more into the story will really be the only major change that I
have to tackle in Volocio. But the payoff will be totally worth it.

What about you writers out there? Have you tried to write a character
that’s outside the normal?